One of the best things you can do for your biz is to build a ‘list’ – whether you call it a newsletter, a subscription, regular updates, or something else, the idea is the same: people who love what you do give you their email address and their permission for you to contact them about your biz.

My list is probably my most valuable marketing tool, and most people are trying desperately to get people to sign up to theirs. Yet, at the start of this year, I asked people to unsubscribe from mine.

Crazy? Maybe.

But here’s the thing: I would rather have 200 subscribers who actually open my newsletter and rave about what I offer than 2000 subscribers just because those numbers look good. I could actually care less about the numbers; I would rather have quality over quantity. And I truly believe that people should focus on what they love, and what is valuable to them.

Own a Restaurant, Café or Coffee Shop? Are you taking time to manage your online reviews? Once upon a time, your restaurant reviews came from your customers in-house, by the way of either compliments or complaints to the waitress who then had either the delightful or dreaded job of dealing with these comments and then passing them on to the chef or restaurant owner. Comments were easily dealt with there and then, by the maître d or restaurant owner.

Bring us to 2012 and unhappy customers are more likely to take their comments public on the internet, rather than comment to the staff working at the premises in which they dined. Today, anyone can call themselves a restaurant/coffee critic or connoisseur, and critic they do!

As a restaurant/café or coffee shop owner, it is essential to keep on-top of on-line reviews and to respond to them in a timely manner. I can’t stress enough, how essential it is to keep track of these reviews, and where possible, to manage your listing by addressing all comments.

You have a great product. It's useful, it's stylish, and most people seem to want it. But even then, you still aren't guaranteed success. Why? The problem could be your pricing. Price setting is half art, half science. You need to make a profit to stay in business, and to do that, your products must be priced correctly. Luckily, there are a few tried-and-true solutions to the problem. Here's what you need to consider when pricing your products or services.

1. Don't Underprice

Cheapest is not always best. Pricing a product below market value has a negative effect, since people will assume that it is not the best quality. Price the majority of your products too low, and they'll soon perceive your entire business as having little value.

At the very least, you must always charge enough to turn a profit. If you don't, your bottom line will suffer, and your business will soon be a distant memory.

Choosing the right keywords is critical. They are a free way to maximise your online presence and when chosen correctly will greatly improve your ranking in search results; driving traffic to your website. That spells SEO success.

This article is the first in a two part series and takes you through how to define, research and refine a keyword strategy for your business.

WHAT ARE KEYWORDS?

When your target consumer searches, they enter a word or series of words into a chosen search engine. That search engine looks for matches and returns results based on how rich pages are in those words (using a complex algorithm to determine which pages are returned and in what order).
These words are what are labelled keywords and keyword phrases. Keywords are 1 word searches and keyword phrases are multiple words searched together.

E.g. Keyword search – Holiday. Keyword phrase search – Queensland Beach Holiday

So, you want your small business, product or service, featured on a blog somewhere. A mummy blog, even. Because we know that mums read blogs and mums trust bloggers that give them advice about products. It’s an intimate kind of relationship that we bloggers have with our readers.

You obviously don’t have your own PR agency to do the hard work for you, so where do you start? How do you find those bloggers and how do you know which one to choose?

Ask Around

If you don’t know any bloggers, ask your friends and networking buddies. Ask them about what blogs they read and why. Ask if they know any bloggers personally. A personal recommendation is always good.

Yes, we’ve all seen them before. Fast cars, yachts and exotic destinations trying valiantly to “sell” the dream business in which you can make a squillion dollars living the life of your dreams and working only the hours that suit you.

Sound too good to be true? Maybe it’s not – but I’m willing to bet that many, if not most, of your readers think the same.

It’s no secret that many of the self employment/work from home/business opportunities you see do create millionaires, and provide wonderful, flexible work options for those of us who want to take charge of our own financial destinies and don’t want to be locked into the traditional 9 to 5.

Having said that, however, many of the ads you see for businesses like this just simply have a “too good to be true” ring about them.

The most important thing to know about working with bloggers is that it’s all about relationship. If you approach a blogger with that goal in mind you will be off to a great start!

Here are some simple ways to do that.

• Use their name, make the pitch personal.
• Read their blog and make sure you are confident that your product will be of interest to the blogger.
• Think about how to make a WIN for you, a WIN for the blogger and a WIN for their readers.
• Tell them something about yourself, a bit of your background and why you think they’d be interested or feel a connection with who you are and what you are doing.

Do you think that social media is for those with too much time on their hands?  An endless stream of self-centred status updates with little bearing on reality?  Think again.

My name is Lauren; I am the designer & owner within a Melbourne business ‘Boondie Baby’.  We specialise in handmade nursery linen and accessories for babies and children.  We market our products world wide through www.boondiebaby.com, are stallholders at boutique children’s markets, blog and run a successful Facebook business page.

From inception, Boondie Baby was introduced to the world of Facebook.  I was very proud to introduce it to my friends on my personal Wall asking them to ‘like’ and ‘share’ my new business.  Within 2 weeks I had 120 ‘likers’.  Having put so much time and effort into conceptualising my new business, it thrilled me to have such a welcomed entrance.

Especially when you are selling online. We all know that online selling differs to face-face selling but in essence the psychology of selling hasn’t changed. There are psychological needs that must be met in order for a person to be persuaded to buy a product or service.

If you are selling products online, you need to show that that product solves a specific problem or meets a specific need. If you are selling a service, you must get in touch with the pain of your potential customer to draw their interest to what you are offering.

I recently read an article that there are more than 280 million websites on the World Wide Web and that number is growing everyday! “Really? That many?” I hear you ask? It’s a bit overwhelming isn’t it? Easy to get lost as a little fish in a big pond!

What's in a name, you may ask, but this question is quite loaded when it comes to choosing the perfect name for your business.

The right name can roll off your tongue effortlessly and have people saying it just because they love the sound of it, but the wrong name can bring up feelings of fear or dread, which is no way to start off on your brilliant business path.

Think of the value invested in the name Apple and how Google has become part of our language, as in “Google it”. But then think about the luggage store named Carrion. This is a funny play on words until you look up the meaning of “carrion” to find the definition: “The decaying flesh of dead animals”. Not such a great choice is it?

After 8 years of full time parenting my two daughters are now settled into school full time. I finally had time available to me and began exploring what to do next. I have considered many options including returning to study for a Master’s degree, getting a part time job, and starting my own business.  In the end I decided to pursue my own business that I had been dreaming of for many years.

I have always been extremely passionate about the topic of competition between business mums as I have seen first hand how the extremes can affect women on both sides of the fence.

Taken to its extreme I know of mums:

• threatened with legal action
• involved in fights on FB
• bitching or being bitched about – to clients no less!

So, why does it happen? Why can’t we all just get along? Purely and simply, it’s fear.

Fear of losing our market share, fear of yet more competition – wouldn’t we all just love our competition to go away?!

YOU only have to watch the nightly news to see those who prepare for their media interview and those who don’t. The fidgeting, stumbling over words and getting off topic can soon lose an audience and an opportunity for you to get your message across. This doesn’t just apply to TV media though.

With a cold Winter, a work from home business and 2 little kids I am often left to juggle and re-juggle my priorities to fit in with the myriad of illnesses that the kids suffer that prevent them from attending childcare.

So what do we do about sick kids, our own businesses and balance?

a newsletter (or sometimes called email marketing) can be one of the best tools you have for marketing your business.

it is a way for you to keep in touch with fans, customers and visitors to your site. but how do you make a newsletter that stands out from the rest? one that your readers will be sure to open, read, click and share.

1.    use a newsletter service
my favorite newsletter provider, and the one i always recommend is mailchimp. i absolutely adore mailchimp, aside from the fact that it is super fun to use (who doesn’t love a monkey that compliments you on your awesomeness?) it is free for a really long time and very user friendly. other popular providers are mad mimi and aweber. an email marketing service such as these will ensure that your newsletter looks and feels professional, plus they are so much easier to manage then collecting email addresses yourself & sending out newsletters via your personal email.

I’ve had my business going a little over six years now.

Last week, I did something some would consider quite drastic.

I rebranded. Totally.

The logo that had adorned my website, business cards and Facebook and Twitter pages for years … gone!

“Why?” I hear your little brains ticking over. “Why would you do that? Branding is everything! How will people know you now?”

It’s true. Branding is a huge deal; and it is really important to get yourself a brand. It’s an easy way for people to recognise you, know who you are and what business you’re in. After some time, your brand become synonymous with what you do – take Coles or Coca-Cola for example. You see their logo and you know who you’re dealing with.

Would you like a New Year’s resolution for the new financial year? Then 30 June is the ideal time to get organised and stress less. How can you do this? Here is an overview of the system I use to get you started.

Declutter

Clutter can keep you disorganised. It can also stop you from locating what really needs to be done (or you can use it as an excuse not to do things)... like paying that bill! Go through your clutter and sort it out.

If you are like me and love keeping memorabilia, just in case/or for the memories – perhaps it’s time to go through your clutter and rationalise. Perhaps culling down to just one item for each event you want to remember (do you really need every RSVP from your wedding?)

It only seems like it was yesterday that we started the new financial year and now with one month left to go, many of us are wondering what we should be doing to get ready for tax time. Getting ready to do your tax can either make you feel anxious or serene but if you take the time now to do some of these tips, you too can become one of the serene.

1. Have an awesome filing system!

Odds are you’re not going to look at that piece of paper again after you enter it into your bookkeeping software but if you file your accounts correctly it makes answering all the hairy questions accountants throw at you much easier. I always file documents with the view that I’m going to be audited tomorrow. No I’m not a pessimist but rather a planner. If I file correctly the first time, I don’t have to do it again AND I can find stuff when I need to.

Before I became a mum, my perception of motherhood was that it appeared to be one long, guilt-riddled roller coaster ride. It seemed that no matter how much you did right as a mother; there was always something you were doing “wrong” to feel guilty about!

I had one friend who job shared with her husband so that their kids were able to be at home with one of their parents every single day. They did this because it was important to them and because it was wonderful for their kids to be able to spend equal time with their parents over the course of a week! When it came time for Miss 5 to start school however, there were adjustment problems and my friend felt guilty because Miss 5 had never been to day care or a crèche!

If you told most people that you were going to start a new business 5 timezones and 9000kms from where you are, most people would think you were crazy. Well I guess I am, because this is what I did when I started cornflowerblue.com – an online boutique that sells organic and ethically made children’s clothing, and little armourie an organic cotton clothing label for girls.

As an Australian expat living in Mumbai India, it was only natural for me to start a business focused on my home country, the place where I am most familiar and comfortable. I knew when I started that I would face a unique set of challenges. We often laugh that we are a ‘global small business’. All small businesses face challenges during their start up phase. We face these and more. Cornflowerblue has been a rollcoaster ride of challenge and yet it’s a ride we are not ready to get off ….not just yet.

To help you understand I will give some quick background first. Therese Hall, the other half of cornflowerblue manages the buying, order fulfillment and warehousing in Brookvale NSW while I sit in India and manage the website and sales and marketing, finance and everything else.

Which one of those men is the boss?

If I had $1 for every time I have heard this I would be very wealthy.  As a female managing director of a mechanical and auto electrical company I am often mistaken for ‘just the secretary’.

Reps from suppliers will enter our workshop and ask to speak to the owner. When I tell them they can speak to me I often hear “but I need to speak to the person who makes the decisions”.   One of my all time favourites is “Oh, so you work for your husband”.

When informing them that I own the business and they must deal with me, many sales reps do not know how to respond. Some take it in their stride and apologise as they are not familiar with dealing with females in management positions within the automotive industry. Others stumble on their words, backpedal and lose the ability to carry about their business with a woman.

How is 2011 going for you?

Are you hitting your business goals? Achieving the plans you set out for yourself?

You are? GREAT! Give yourself a pat on the back!

You haven’t got any goals? That’s ok. It’s never too late to set your goals and there’s no time like the present.

Let’s look at 4 key areas to achieving your goals.

Mothers choosing to work from home are not always taken seriously by the wider community or even our extended families, at times. We know, of course, that it is a balancing act between many factors the needs a unique skill set that hasn't been seen before. The ultimate blend between being at home and working at home can be achieved but for it to work for you and your family, this unique skill set needs practicing.

Take it seriously
The first stage of getting into a WAHM mindset is to take your business seriously yourself. Be clear in your own mind that this is valid work, just as going to an office, shop or factory for 40 hrs a week is. This doesn't mean that you can't have fun and enjoy your work but acknowledging to yourself that working from home is a valid work option is important. Once you believe it, it is easier to explain to other people or to push aside the criticism or scepticism.

The first and very important step is to ask them “Are you registered as a BAS Agent?”

If you are one of the few who read the newsletters that come with their BAS statements, you may or may not recall the article for Q4 Activity Statement update 2009-2010 “Using registered agents”.

In this newsletter, the ATO introduced the new Tax Agent Services Act 2009 to the public.

If you are paying someone to complete your BAS, payroll or data enter along with their tax codes the bookkeeper needed to be registered from the 1st March 2010 and have Public Liability Insurance by the 1st July 2011. You can read more about this change at www.ato.gov.au/newregime

Every now and then it pays to conduct an overhaul of our budget (or start one in some cases). The catalyst could be a disconnection notice or an overdrawn fee, or perhaps you realise you just need some savings for a holiday or rainy day. Whatever sparks your desire to sit down and re-evaluate, it’s a given that changes will need to be made in order to change your current situation.

Assessing your current environment

Mumpreneurs are renowned for their ability to multi-task, plan ahead and use their creativity in business and as such, make for great budgeters.

Jolie Morello mother of two and creator of Hey Bambini talks to us about how she started her own website which finds and reviews all the child friendly cafes in Melbourne.  Hey Bambini has been online for nearly two years and attracts over 4000 readers a month. Jolie has a brilliant community of mums who follow her site and often they contact her for business and website related advice.

I never dreamed that l would one day run my own website, let alone be the mentor to other mums who want to start their own online business. I’m a make-up artist by trade with a background in retail management – l can create flawless skin with three kinds of foundation, plus merchandise a front window like nobody’s business, but run a website??  My computer skills were basic and l had no idea on how to start a website, let alone run one. My husband used to laugh at how bad my computer skills were – don’t even get me started on Excel spreadsheets! They are truly the bain of my existence!

A blog (shortened word for web log) is neither hard nor should it be daunting.  I have recently entered the blogging world and have a few posts; with many more to come.

Many mumpreneurs have built a viable business using the skills, knowledge and nous they have for a particular topic which may have nothing to do with the Internet. Many think heading online to blog isn’t necessary, but absolutely any business can take their business online no matter what the content or who the target audience is.

A brand is a space created in the consumer’s psyche – a thought; a feeling; a memory; of a product, service or business. It is the perceived image manifested from the experiences of the consumer. The aim of branding is to convey a specific brand image and develop expectations behind the brand experience, setting it apart as special and unique. The ideal result leads the consumer to see the brand as the only solution to their needs. As such, branding is a key element to successful marketing.

Great branding should speak to the target market and convey all of the brand’s key qualities. It should also see the brand engaging with the consumer at multiple touchpoints. When relevance, frequency and creativity are all on the mark, branding leads to brand awareness – the ability for consumers to recognise or recall a brand.

They say an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but, if you’re like me, an apple is the last thing you feel like eating after being on the go all day, surviving on coffee and whatever else comes to hand (normally chocolate!).

Being busy ‘mumpreneurs’ we are used to multi-tasking; answering the phone while changing a nappy; quickly checking emails while the kids are watching TV and all the while figuring out what to cook for dinner that night, whether the washing that’s been sat in the machine can be hung up smelling damp, and most importantly, making sure the children are fed, nourished, happy, clean, contented and healthy.

But what about us? How many mums out there constantly think “tomorrow, I’ll start eating more fruit, take better care of myself, put myself FIRST.”

Many small businesses start off in the home, perhaps on the kitchen table or in the dining room. You may be employed elsewhere either full time or part time. You might be a first time parent or have made a life change decision. Often there is very little money in the kitty to fund the business.

Thousands of new small businesses are started in Australia every year. Many new business starters have invented something, or started an online business or have licensed a product for Australia. You may also be setting up a consultant business or a shop.

If you’re starting out in business, or refreshing your website, have you given some thought to who will develop and maintain it?  Its easy to Google and find a web designer or developer, but many small businesses come unstuck because they’ve gone for a cheaper developer, or someone they know, without doing their homework first.  Unless you’ve asked some critical questions beforehand, it can end up costing much more than you thought in time, lost income, or fees.

Here’s my top 7 tips for choosing the right web developer:

Want to start your own home-based business? There’s every reason to do it! I did, and I love it!

Starting my own home-based business was always a pipe dream for me. I had a few friends that had started their own businesses from home and I doubted whether I could do the same.

Three years ago, I had two school-aged children with whooping cough and I was working full time in the city as a Personal Assistant. When my kids developed whooping cough and had to miss weeks of school, I took many days off work and returned to work to find a very unhappy boss. My family-friendly workplace really was not that family-friendly after all! I started thinking of things that I could do from home to earn money and, really, to replace my full time income.

Taking on a new recruit can be daunting. You've done well until now juggling the phone calls, managing the finances and staying on top of the workload but you're just now at a point where you can offload some of the tasks to allow you either to expand or take some much deserved time out.

But how do you find someone who can do the job as good as you? Your business is your baby and you need to find someone who'll care for it like it was his or her own! It's important to know how to shortlist applicants based on what is essentially a few words on paper - the CV.

Well it would appear that most of us are certainly trying to be – or at least are in training for it! 

A recent survey released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that too many of us are doing unpaid domestic work.  You might ask “when did we ever get paid for it”, but why are we spending so much time doing it?

The survey asked 70,000 local women between 35 and 64 years how much unpaid domestic work they undertook each week.  Of these women an astounding 70% did at least 15 hours and a staggering 20% did over 30 hours, that’s almost the equivalent of a full time job!

In addition, the results show that as women get older they are undertaking even more domestic work; more than their male counter parts?   Sorry guys!

Deciding what to wear during your pregnancy can seem to be especially daunting. During pregnancy, your body will go through more change than it has seen since childhood and it can be hard for some women to accept their new figures. Finding clothes that suit you can be more challenging because over the years you have got used to matching your own shape to your personal style and now you may suddenly feel like you are buying clothes for someone else.

This week I’ve run my business from (in no particular order) my sofa, my office, a park, a cafe, a train, a plane and three separate countries. My husband is a diplomat so we spend a lot of time travelling. And it’s not just me. Every member of the Babes With Babies (Bb) team is able to work everywhere. We have a set-up which provides full flexibility. Amazingly, it seems to work.

We’re passionate – nay, obsessed - about making the business accessible for the team so that everyone can work around their life. It’s not always easy but the benefits are enormous. Naturally, a more flexible working set-up works exceptionally well with our team members who have children but that’s not the only situation where it helps...

With so much choice out there, how do high street buyers make their buying decisions? How can you ensure that your product is chosen from the thousands that are pitched to them each year? And if you are lucky enough to be granted space on their shelves, how do you ensure that you keep it?

1 – Ensure you have a strong brand.
When you are trying to bring your product to market, you will be seen immediately beside your biggest competition so you need to stand out as much as possible. Think like a consumer; what sort of packaging appeals to you? What kind of branding do you like? Take a look at the branding of other similar products and see what they all have in common and use this knowledge to your advantage. Most importantly, make sure that it is clear to potential purchasers what your product is and what it does!

You only get one chance to make a first impression: This is particularly true of the web.

If you go into a shop or a cafe and you don't like what you see - the chances are that you will hang around for a few minutes, you've probably caught the eye of the staff and it would look very rude just to turn around and walk out.

So the staff might get a second chance, a chance to engage you in conversation… and maybe win you over.

If you click on a website that you don't like, you simply click away - and no one even knows that you were there. 

Time management not your forte?  Always chasing your tail?  Mum, business owner and time management guru, Sarah Sadler of Organised Mum, shares her tips and advice on how to make the most of your day.

Unfortunately for those of us who work and have a family there’s no getting round the fact that there are only 24 hours in a day!  As a working mother it can be a struggle to fit in work and family commitments and feel that we are devoting enough time and attention to each area of our lives.

However, by taking a proactive approach to what needs to be done and applying some simply time management techniques, working mothers can regain control and achieve a balance between their work and family lives.

Relatively new to blogging Motivated Mum, Maggy of Red Ted Art, started out small and now boasts an ever-increasing readership and presence on the internet.  These are her tips on ways to attract readers to your blog, increase your stats and get yourself noticed on the internet.

There are two approaches to this article. One is the story (rather a long essay) and the other is keeping it short and sweet. Here is short and sweet.

Here is a screen shot of my stats:

What happened in Jan/ Feb 2010 and again March & April? Then in May? What will June  look like?

If you’re not in the industry,  search engine optimisation can be a bit of a minefield.

So many people all tell you different things,  but they generally have one thing in common, they all want to make money out of you.

You are probably already bombarded with phone calls from Companies promising to get you on page one of the search engines. In truth, they possibly can, but it will cost. And if the cost outweighs the business it generates then you have not really achieved anything. It is also important that you are at the top of the right page – it’s all very well pushing visitors to your site, but if they are the wrong visitors , you won’t make any new sales.

Self-confessed 'shoeaholic' and mum-of-three Andrea Alli is enjoying great success with her handy product, the 'Flexi Shoe Rack' (www.flexishoerack.co.uk). In this exclusive interview, London-based Andrea, 38, shares with other budding mumpreneurs how she found her feet in running her own business.

“Like a lot of women, I love shoes. The problem was I had 200 pairs and a lot of space in my house I simply couldn't use. Corners of rooms, gaps under the stairs or recesses in the laundry room just weren't compatible with the shoe racks available on the market. It frustrated me to buy a shoe rack that was of a fixed width and height with no flexibility built-in. The product just didn't conform with the space I had to play with.

Award-winning author Clare Mulley won the hearts of the nation with her debut biography of Save the Children founder Eglantyne Jebb. It was awarded the Daily Mail Biographers Club prize and was described as a ‘truly brilliant book’ by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. But in an exclusive article with Motivating Mum, the mum-of-three reveals the difficulties she faced juggling life as a writer and a parent.

Motherhood - in all its wonderful complexities - seems to be the story of my life. When I had my first child I decided I wanted to work part-time from home, so I left my job as a fundraiser at the charity Save the Children and started researching the life of the charity’s founder, the wonderfully named Eglantyne Jebb. The plan was to quickly produce a best-selling biography. I had no idea what I was taking on. 

NEWS COPY - WITH PICTURES

Talk about the mother of great ideas...

Eight of Britain's most respected female entrepreneurs have thrown their weight behind a groundbreaking new initiative that supports mums in business.

Rachel Elnaugh, Sally Preston, Laura Tenison, Antonia Chitty, Wendy Shand, Leila Wilcox, Mel McGee and Rachel Jones are backing Mentoring Mum, a unique mentoring scheme for self-employed women.

They will draw on their extensive experience to offer help and guidance about all aspects of business - from law and tax to marketing and public relations.

In the three years I have been running Motivating Mum, I have come across so many mums with many great ideas, be they product or service.  They say 'necessity is the mother of all invention' and it seems they were right on many fronts; having babies seems to highlight areas lacking in just the right product or service and it is the mother doing the inventing.

I asked Cally to contribute this article as I know that although you have the ideas and the passion, the know-how is an area that many of you could use a little help and who better than the founder of She's Ingenious herself?  Cheers!  Alli

An article by Cally Robson, personal business coach and Founder of She's Ingenious! www.ShesIngenious.org

While grant funding gets harder to win, organized awards and showcases are on the up. Here are some pointers to help you find the pick of the bunch for your idea and stay on top of deadlines.

Article by Sarah Steel, Managing Director, The Old Station Nursery Ltd

After 7 years of running my children’s nursery company, I took the plunge last year and published my first book. Over the years I have enjoyed writing a newsletter for parents at the various nurseries and have often included a recipe we have made at nursery, or details of an activity that we have carried out that the children have particularly enjoyed. We produced an in-house booklet of nursery songs for parents, who couldn’t remember, or didn’t know all the words to some songs and wanted to be able to join in with their child.

So, slowly the idea formed that it would be really nice to produce a book which brought together lots of these ideas and activities and which parents, grandparents and carers could use to give them some inspiration when they were at home with an energetic child.

Identifying the pros and cons of drop-shipping – what is it and is it the right business model for you?

An article by Mindy Emsley, Founder and Managing Director of www.merababy.co.uk

According to Wikipedia “Drop-shipping is a supply chain management technique in which the retailer does not keep goods in stock, but instead transfers customer orders and shipment details to either the manufacturer or a wholesaler, who then ships the goods directly to the customer. As in all retail businesses, the retailers make their profit on the difference between the wholesale and retail price”.

Put simply, it means you advertise and sell Product X on your site for a retail price of Y££. When the customer buys Product X, they pay you the Y££ advertised. You then place an identical order with the supplier of Product X, who charges you a Wholesale (drop-ship) price of Z££. You give the supplier the customer’s details and the supplier packs and ships Product X directly to your customer.   The customer receives their goods, the supplier receives the wholesale (drop-ship) price for their product and as with all retail, you have made your profit on the difference between the price you paid the supplier and the price the customer paid you.

Four, three, two, one!! The room erupts into cheers and, caught up in the excitement, you decide to stop smoking, go to the gym, stop spending, insert your own New Years resolution here...

Sound familiar? The next part probably does too. The part where, within a week your determination has been whittled away and you're indulging in cake, smoking a pack a day, shopping up a storm, insert your own personal demon here.

Guilt-free 'me time'. It ranks right up there with non fattening ice cream and a man that puts the toilet seat down, ideal but impossible in the real world. But is it really? Some things are out of our control, like getting hubby to drop the lid, but as fantastic as it sounds guilt-free 'me time' can be yours. Read on for tips on how you can take a little time back for you.

You've just given birth and come home with your new baby. You're getting up in the night, you're sterilising and washing, you're feeding and bathing and you're getting used to a new and very different life. So, what do you do? You start a business!

Growing up, Christmas was a magical time, great feasts of turkey and pudding, presents spilling out from under the tree and tinsel and lights sparkling through the lounge window. You never questioned how it all came together, you just ate, drank and played until you went to bed and it was time to look forward to Christmas next year.

I have never been fussed about having kids. I have never clucked over my friends' babies, chased kids at weddings or cooed over infants in strollers. I am what you call non-maternal, and I've never been bothered by it...until I became pregnant.

I had finally made it through the 9th month. I was ready to reduce my girth, deflate my ankles and stop dressing in clothes with stretchy panels. Most of all, I was ready to meet Amelie. There was only one catch; my baby was nowhere to be seen.